


Through The Valley

by jesterwester



Series: The End of The World [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Everyone is Dead, Gore, Gun Violence, Heavy Angst, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) Angst, M/M, Not Tagging A Lot to Avoid Spoilers, Songfic, Zombie Apocalypse, klangst, literally everyone is dead but keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-08
Updated: 2019-04-08
Packaged: 2020-01-06 17:14:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18392798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jesterwester/pseuds/jesterwester
Summary: Keith takes a moment to reflect on his life





	Through The Valley

**Author's Note:**

> So this is the sequel/ending to "Always Save One" I'll make them into a series in a bit. Sorry for the massive delay, been a busy boy. There's more works planned for the series, and you already have the fates of some characters spoiled by this one. Sorry! Needed it to make the narrative work though.
> 
> This is a song fic, inspired by my hype for TLOU Part 2. The song is Through The Valley by Shawn James, if you want to take a listen!
> 
> Warnings for: Death, graphic description of a wound.

_ I walk, through the valley… of the shadow of death _

The groaning of the horde surrounding him filled his ears as he forced the song through his throat. Unused and neglected for so long, it was almost painful. He could feel the damage he had done through the years, the dryness feeling like he had the dry and hot sand of the Arizona desert shoved down his throat, a bitter reminder of the place he used to call home.

_ I fear no evil… because I’m blind to it all _

He stared the dead ones behind him in the eyes, only getting empty reflections of people 

long gone back. Nothing else like him, just another mindless, diseased vessel for the end of the world. He tried not to think of the fact that the infected around him once used to be people, just like himself, and like the people he once loved.

_ My mind and my gun, they comfort me… _

As the line fell from his lips, he tightened his grip on the pistol in his hand, feeling the trigger with his cut and damaged index finger. The cool metal felt like a temporary relief from his life now, from the pain and hurt he had endured. His mind was the furthest thing from a comfort he could think of, however. It was once filled with happy memories and fun days in the sun, but now it was haunted by ghosts of those he failed. The faces all blurred together, only two really standing from the amalgamation of his mistakes. Those were the most painful ones, the ones he’d carry with him until his death, whenever that came.

_ Because I know I’ll kill my enemies when they come. _

What part of his mind wasn’t filled with painful memories and forgotten crimes, was filled with the crimes he wished he could commit. He knew the day would come eventually, he was being hunted, but he was too far gone to care. He had lost too much to the world, and his life was another insignificant drop in the bucket of new world survival. 

_ Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life… _

Goodness and mercy, the very definition of those he had failed. Shiro, who always saw the good in everyone, even strangers, right up until his head was blown to pieces on the concrete by a desperate man. And Lance… the one who convinced everyone that he was worth saving, bitten or not. The one who saved his life, a life he was now miserable and distraught in.  He could almost see them out of the corners of his eyes, shambling along as ghosts of a happy past. The remnants of their voices he could remember kept him company on the lonely nights.

_ And I will dwell on this earth, forevermore. _

The only thing he hoped is that he’d meet his end before the world completely died.

 

_ I walk beside the still waters, and they restore my soul… _

Lance had loved the water, playing in it everytime they came to a creek. He wore a small smile as he looked down at the still creek, almost feeling the first time Lance ever flung an armful of water at him, soaking him to the bone. 

_ But I can’t walk the path of the right… _

He drug out the right, remembering everyone he had failed once again. They had all been amazing, brilliant people. In any other world, everyone would have looked up to them. He was lucky to know every single one, undeserving of their time. He closed his eyes to finish the verse, his throat raw.

_ Because I’m wrong… _

 

_ Well I came upon a man, at the top of a hill _

A memory came to his mind, playing out just like a movie. He knew it forwards to back, it haunted his dreams. He remembered walking up, the horde struggling to clamber behind him. He could see the older man, hunched over, his elbows on his knee as he looked at the compound below him. He didn’t have to speak before the man opened his mouth. “Why?”

_ Call himself the savior of the human race _

“All I’ve done is try to save this planet. Nothing was meant to hurt anyone, it was just scientific discovery.”

His face hardened. “Scientific discovery?” His tone was filled with malice, pure hatred. “They were people, god damnit. They had lives. Friends, family.”

The older man turned to look at him. “I know what lies Krolia planted in your head, child. She told you we tortured them, didn’t she? That we might as well have carried out the next holocaust. Is that right?

“Don’t try to get in my head!” He took out a gun, pointing it at the older man. “You killed Hunk, you kept Allura as one of them for  _ months _ !”

_ Said he come to save the world from destruction and pain... _

“Hunk was infected, he begged us to end it. And Allura? We humanely euthanized her after we got all the information we could. You knew her for years, she was my goddaughter! I am in just as much pain as you are, child! I did it for the world! At least we still treat them as people, we don’t smash their heads into the ground!”

He shook the gun violently, trying to keep tears from rising. “Shut up! You don’t know anything, I didn’t have a choice, you did! There’s nothing you can excuse, Zarkon!”

Zarkon looked up at Keith, sincerity in his warm brown eyes. “You’re going to lose yourself to the infection. You know you’re not immune, you’re only resistant. We can save you, Keith. And then the world. Nobody will have to go through what your friends and family did, never again.”

Keith looked off the cliff, his eyes focusing on the compound below them. Men and women kept watch from the wall, one focused on him and Zarkon. Children ran in the streets, laughing and playing. They couldn’t see the horde coming behind Keith, he wasn’t even sure if Zarkon could hear them. Keith turned his eyes to Zarkon, seeing the man’s face full of hope, expectant even. He readjusted the gun in his hand, staring down Zarkon with a hardened glare, and he could see the shock and pain in Zarkon’s face.

_ But I said ‘How can you save the world from itself?’ _

The gunshot echoed, and the groans from the horde behind him rose to an excited cacophony as the first few clambered up the hill, to the scent of blood. Keith watched as the old man crumpled to the grass, and then kicked the body down the hill, knowing it would land right next to the compound walls. He stood in place as infected howled and groaned, crawling or running past him towards fresh meat, his own infection shielding them from their fury. He turned as he saw them tumble down the hill, walking back through the horde to gunshots ringing in his ears.

 

He was thrown back to the present, feeling his mind slowly slipping away to infection. He didn’t even stop at the creek to drink, only continuing to walk. It wouldn’t matter in a few weeks anyway. He would be haunted by his crimes until he became one of the dead that surrounded him. He screwed his eyes shut tight, desperate to finish the song, the first thing his brother taught him to sing. A small reminder of happy memories in a grim world.

“Because I walk through the valley-” He looked over him, seeing towering cliffs, casting long shadows as vultures swooped down to feast on the slower members of the horde- “Of the shadow of death…”

He heard a groan right against his ear, turning and staring an infected right in the eyes. This was a woman, her stomach sagging just past where her crotch was. It was ripped open and clawed, allowing her organs to hang out, intestines scraping the dirt ground. She had been pregnant when bitten, he didn’t want to stop to think about what happened to the fetus. He had seen a pregnant woman turn, and the first fresh meat they smell is inside them. “I fear no evil, because I’m blind.” He could see his own pale face in her eyes, especially the massive chunk that was taken from his cheek, and the rotting flesh in the wound. Maggots were up near his eyes, in a part of the wound he had no feeling in. His teeth were slightly visible from it. He looked just like a member of the horde, indistinguishable from the monsters he had hated for taking his happy world away from him. 

“I walk beside the still waters and they restore my soul…” He looked down, almost expecting water, but only seeing dried up puddles and what had to have been lakes. It was like the memory of Lance, fading rapidly as his life died, the two dependent on each other. The state of water here was the exact same as his soul. He stopped walking, allowing the dead to knock into him, some taking interest in the smell of the rotting meat of his face and other wounds. The horrified looks of other survivors he came across and their whispering about the Dead Man Walking made since. That’s all he’d ever be, and all he was from the second the infection it the planet. “But I know when I die… my soul is damned.”

**Author's Note:**

> I like symbolism, especially involving Klance angst.
> 
> Also, every fic I've seen of questionable Keith, he ends up being a good guy by the end. Nah son. Keith is the evil one here. Maybe I'll write a fic about what happened in between him killing Zarkon and his horde walking, maybe I'll leave that for interpretation.
> 
> Also, tell me what you want in the comments, Klance relationship piece or Krolia's manipulation? Next fic won't be from Keith's perspective.


End file.
